Groups hold events to mark 2-year anniversary of Osaze Osagie’s death in State College
A federal lawsuit was filed, dozens of meetings and protests were organized and multiple investigations were carried out in the two years since a State College resident was fatally shot by a borough police officer.
But that’s left 3/20 Coalition secretary Melanie Morrison with more questions than answers, prompting her to wonder aloud Wednesday about just how much has really changed since Osaze Osagie’s death.
“We’ve been able to see the work that we picked up from the start and how much it has kept the pressure on the people with the power to actually change things, but it’s also been a painful reminder of just how little has actually come to completion,” Morrison said. “There’s been so many task forces and people meeting, and yet we’re still not at a point where anything is being implemented.”
The 3/20 Coalition and the State College NAACP have planned separate events to honor Osagie’s memory Saturday, following the 3/20 Coalition’s Friday march and protest in downtown State College. Dozens of people were in attendance.
In November, the State College-Centre County mental health task force unveiled a 79-page report with 21 recommendations on how to improve the county’s mental health system.
The latest step taken by Centre County and State College leaders was to organize a new committee to oversee the implementation of the old committee’s work.
That was one of the recommendations made by the original task force, but Morrison said it’s “two years too late.”
“We need to have more change happening now because nobody needs to go through the pain that the Osagie family has had to go through,” Morrison said. “To still have to take that to a civil suit and to still have to keep fighting to pursue justice continues to be a profoundly tragic situation.”
At least three members of the occasionally brash group are candidates in the upcoming municipal primary election, all as Democrats.
Morrison is uncontested in the race for Millheim constable, while Tierra Williams is running for Ferguson Township supervisor and Divine Lipscomb is running for State College Borough Council.
That’s part of the group’s long-term plan, but their plan in the interim is to honor Osagie’s legacy.
The group’s “10 Days of Action” will culminate Saturday with a daylong festival with all proceeds expected to go toward the Centre Foundation’s Osaze Osagie College Scholarship Endowment.
The State College NAACP also plans to donate all money raised from its Saturday fundraiser, auction and speaker panel.
“On Saturday, the day of the two-year anniversary, we want to reclaim that as State College, as the community,” Morrison said. “We want to say, ‘We’re building a community that would have kept Osaze safe. We’re building the kind of community that protects and nurtures and doesn’t bring guns to the doorstep of somebody experience a mental health crisis.’ That day is all about community.”
This story was originally published March 19, 2021 at 7:49 PM.